Germans couldn’t be bothered with your fitness tracker

In Germany, almost half of the people that own a fitness tracker have stopped using it and more than 85 percent said they have no interest in purchasing a fitness tracker.

It is dire news for the wearable market, of which fitness trackers make up more than half. Fitbit, the industry leader, sells more fitness trackers than the combined sales of Apple and Samsung’s wearables.

Over 2,500 people were surveyed by DKV, results found that 89 percent don’t own and don’t want to own a fitness tracker and five percent are thinking about it. Out of the six percent left, two percent don’t use their fitness tracker anymore, and 16 people confessed to never wearing the device.

“It’s a clear indication for us: the majority of people in Germany do not see the need to use wearables”, said Clemens Muth, Chairman of the Board of Management at DKV. “We believe that wearables don’t interest healthy people who have an average desire to exercise.”

The profile of the average fitness tracker owner, according to the survey, is young, healthy, and exercises often. That fits with the general profile of people that purchase fitness trackers across the world.

Fitness tracker design at fault?

Asked why they don’t use their fitness tracker anymore, 19 percent said it too difficult to use and 18 percent found it annoying. 15 percent felt that the fitness tracker didn’t give motivation to be healthy or lose weight.

Even though it is lower than the other two, the lack of motivation is a key point that fitness tracker providers need to figure out. Fitbit provides a way to log your food, water, exercise and see improvements, but there is no virtual coach telling you to walk faster, go swimming, or reduce the amount of carbohydrates in your diet.

This functionality could be necessary to keep people engaged and on a clear diet, but to implement it Fitbit (and other providers) need to make an assistant, like a bot, that can pester you to keep fit. It also needs a larger database that can give health warnings when you are eating too much of a certain food type.

Fitbit may be worried about the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), which may block wearables that attempt to control dietary regimes. Apple supposedly had similar problems adding health sensors into the original Watch, which led to underwhelming health and fitness features.

German regulators could clear the road for self-driving cars

To suggest that global regulations around autonomous vehicles are murky, may be the understatement of the year. But Germany’s proposed regulations on self-driving cars could potentially let some daylight through.

As reported by Fast Company, the German government is updating its traffic laws to include self-driving car rules. If passed, experts say these regulations could provide some of the clearest guidelines for autonomous cars in any major world economy.

The proposed legislation stipulates that the new class of cars will still need to require a steering wheel and a conscious human sitting behind it. As well, driverless cars would need to have black boxes that record crash data to determine whether accidents were the fault of man or machine.

And while some argue the proposed rules are overly cautious, Germany’s decisive push for clear autonomous car regulations could give the country an advantage in the race to become global leader in developing the technology.

This follows chancellor Angela Merkel’s comments this spring that her government wants industry input and that all members of Germany’s ruling coalition are backing autonomous vehicles. This signaled to the industry that it could enjoy a harmonious legislative environment in the country, unlike other jurisdictions.

Meanwhile, industry pundits have raised fears that America could become a disjointed patchwork of incompatible and competing regulations for self-driving cars.

German regulations won’t get knotted like elsewhere

In California, which is arguably the most advanced U.S. state for autonomous vehicle testing, convoluted rules continue to create obstacles for companies seeking to develop these cars in the state.

Bird & Bird, an international law firm, discussed details of Germany’s proposed legislation. It noted that the biggest rule change is that the driver could transfer legal responsibility to the robot car, with their liability only triggered if the driver doesn’t react to the vehicle’s “wake-up” alarm.

“In other words, the driver may read, write, or watch TV to a certain extent, but having a nap will remain prohibited,” said Alexander Duisberg, a Bird & Bird partner.

If the black-box recorder proves that the driver did respond to the car’s warning alerts, the vehicle would be held responsible for any accident rather than the human.

“Whenever evidence is had that the manufacturer of the system is responsible for the accident, [it] will be liable without limitation,” he said.

KONUX gathers $7.5 million for IIoT sensors

Munich-based industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) startup KONUX raised $7.5 million in Series A funding to start developing smart sensors for industry.

German industrial VC investor MIG lead the funding round, alongside New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Silicon Valley’s Andy Bechtolsheim. UnternehmerTUM, Warren Weiss, and Founder.org were also named as investors according to the IIoT firm.

See Also: Can IoT make bike rides safer?

The funding round allows the company to “expand its product platform, roll out products in volume for new and existing customers and establish [the company as a leader] in machine insights.”

KONUX already has a few recognizable customers, like Deutsche Bahn, one of the leaders in passenger logistics. The firm says it has reduced costs, increased safety, and digitized Deutsche Bahn’s infrastructure since it started working with them.

“Industrial companies are facing increasing challenges related to machine efficiency and maintenance expenses,” said KONUX CEO Andreas Kunze. “We believe the real impact and the toughest challenges of IoT are in the industrial world. We have designed solutions that allow for complete digitalization of manual measurements and comprehensive sensor data tracking and analytics, with the ultimate goal to shift from unplanned maintenance to predictive maintenance.”

KONUX joins growing IIoT marketplace

It is one in a growing list of startups designing IoT products for the industrial market. Some, including the German government, claim that this might be the fourth industrial revolution, on level with the advances the industry noticed when it switched from water to electric power; or started using computers to automate procedures.

“KONUX has tremendous experience with sensor solutions in industrial settings and can provide unique insights by combining sensors with cloud-enabled analytics,” said Greg Papadopoulos, Ph.D., Venture Partner at NEA and former CTO at SUN Microsystems. “Other solutions tend to focus on either the analytics layer or the manufacturing of sensor components; KONUX’s vertical approach and use of AI are unique differentiators.”